favourably disposed to discuss the mcdifications which I was commissioned to ask in the concession of May 28, 1876, granted according to Colombian law No. 33 of same year." (See "Rapport sur les Etudes de la Commission Internationale," &c., Paris, Lahure, Imprimérie Générale, 1879, page 21.)

In view of the haste of M. Wyse it is not too much to conjecture that this trip to Bogota and an amended concession were the principal purposes of his expedition. President Parra's term of office expired on the last day of March, and its nineteen days of remaining life were turned to good account by the clever French promoter. On the 14th it was decided that M. Wyse should submit a new contract of concession, which he did on the following day. The details were then discussed for several days; the Government was made to give the company controlled by M. Wyse the right of way in all the territory of the United States of Colombia, having regard to the rights of the Panama Railway, and the grant of lands was for double the area of the previous concession. On March 28-in less than a week-the Colombian Government signed this most important contract. Such haste is unparalleled in any country, and almost justifies the belief that M. Wyse must have employed extraordinary persuasion to win over the unbounded confidence of the Executive of that distracted country in the last days of a dying administration. On March 23 the President signed the grant, and submitted it to Congress, who discussed the subject up to May 17, when the last amendments were disposed of. On the next day the new President signed the Bill. Twentyfour hours later on, M. Wyse was on his way back to Panama, which he reached in seventeen days-on June 4. The Société civile had at last got a concession to its

own satisfaction, embracing the whole isthmus connecting the two Americas, except Nicaragua and Tehuantepec. That was the point. As to the explorations to fill the gaps, they were only undertaken for the sake of decency and of appearances. M. Wyse had now to go to the United States and arrange with the Panama Railway Company, whose rights were still in his way, for it seems his views had been for some time fixed upon the line of that road as a fit one for the proposed canal. When he left for Bogota he directed Commander Reclus (who, as we know, had reached Panama on February 25) to survey the valley of the Chagres, and on the Pacific slope that of the Rio Grande or of the Caïmito. M. Reclus fell ill, and it was not until March II that he was able to start for Bernardino. On the 13th he ascended the Caïmito and the Bernardino. On the 14th he reached the Copé, and then passed over the Aguacate and the Congo, returning to Panama on the 28th. On April 2 M. Reclus commenced a reconnaissance of the valleys of the Obispo, Chagres, and Rio Grande, which is the line of the present canal. He writes in his diary ("Rapports" already quoted, page 126) that "that was not an enploration in the true sense of the word;" it was indeed a walk, if not a ride, over the Panama Railway line. He was accompanied by Sr. Sosa, who, however, left him a week later on, too ill to proceed, and when, after four days, he recovered, M. Reclus had an attack of earache, which caused him to return to Panama on April 20, and ten days later he left for Europe.

And that exploration, which was "no exploration," and lasted eighteen days, was the one on which the muchspoken-of Wyse-Reclus project for an interoceanic canal in Panama was based! The fifteen printed pages of M. Reclus' diary are silent witnesses of the shameful

manner in which these daring speculators, without any attempt at a serious study of the line, came boldly forward, proposing, not one alone, but several schemes for such a tremendous work as a canal. M. Wyse had already the concession, dated 1876, from Colombia; now he had a fresh one, altered to suit himself. The French savants had declared that too little as yet was known of the isthmus to enable them to make an intelligent choice of a route. It was necessary to play the comedy of science, and M. Wyse played it, we must admit, in a most grotesque manner. Eighteen days in Panama were enough for such wonderful geniuses as Commander Reclus and a fifth-rate Colombian engineer to clear up the scientific mysteries of the isthmus. In eighteen days, in spite of illness, these two men pretended to have finally decided the question that, as we have been showing, had perplexed many conscientious explorers. The canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific must be in Panama, if only the Panama Railway Company would let it be. Surely any man who wants to build a house for himself employs more than eighteen days in fixing upon a proper locality, for there are many conditions that must be weighed with care. But these men knew all about the Panama route, which is upwards of 47 miles in length in a direct line, crossing a torrent that rises 50 feet in twenty-four hours, and teeming with the most difficult problems of engineering: yes, they learned all about it in eighteen days' travel over it! In truth no work of average importance has ever been undertaken with such flimsy preparation. The whole transaction, from commencement to end, was suggestive of an attempt to grossly impose on the enthusiastic and patriotic people who believe in the name of M. de Lesseps; and what is especially sad in this whole affair is,

that M. de Lesseps himself, to whom unstinted praise is due for his glorious feat in the Isthmus of Suez, was now a partner--a particularly interested party-in this questionable business, in which he had staked his good

name.

As we have said, M. Wyse's task was ended except for the matter of arranging with the Panama Railway. Before he left for the United States he made a visit to Nicaragua, not to try if he could supply an independent geographical society with the requisite gaps in science, but really to condemn it, as he does; for, it must be repeated, his concession was for Colombia and not for Nicaragua. On July I he sailed to San Francisco, and crossed the continent to Washington and New York, leaving the latter port on the last day of the month, and reaching Paris on the following August 11, bringing with him his Colombian concession. Here we drop the curtain on the first act of this play.

CHAPTER IV.

THE WYSE CONCESSION. .—THE PARIS CONGRESS OF 1879. The terms of the Colombian concession for the Panama Canal.The company gets 1,250,000 acres of land.-Stipulations as to war-vessels in the canal.-As Nicaragua is the best route, MM. Wyse and Lesseps pack a "congress" to endorse the Panama.How the men of science were snubbed at the congress.-Unseemly haste in settling the point.-Some unpalatable truths told at the congress by M. de Lesseps' own friends.

DURING the whole time of these two expeditions of Commanders Wyse and Reclus, it was the general impression that the Americans generally favoured the Nicaragua route as the most feasible. Such was undoubtedly the result arrived at by all competent authorities who read the reports of the different expeditions sent to the isthmus between 1870 and 1876, and also by the committee of revision, under General Humphreys, which had already presented its report. It is evident that, once in Europe, and having got a concession from Colombia, Commander Wyse had to act promptly on it, and his first step would naturally be to have his route, as against Nicaragua, preferred to and endorsed by at least an appearance of scientific authority, so that it might not be claimed afterwards that the rival route was the best. But let us first examine the terms of the concession of M. Wyse, or rather of the Société Civile Internationale du Canal Interocéanique.

As we have already stated, the contract of the conces